The Fearsome Furnace
by Oliver diLustro-Halliwell
Summary: In this episode of their tragic life, the Baudelaire Orphans will encounter a water-logged book, a Japanese waitress, a womans death and a ocean liner. Please do NOT read this fan fiction!


The Fearsome Furnace  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Memories are sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. For instance, when I go to a certain meetings with certain volunteers, I often remember a time when fire was used for heating and campsites. But now every time I see a fire, all I remember is a miserable old man and his organization that now has two sides. Another thing I reminisce, a word which here mean 'remember', about is a woman who once loved a man but heard a lie about the man and stopped loving him to find another man and that man went on to love someone else, leaving the woman unloved, and during all this, the first man still loved the woman who didn't love him. Also, near the end of her life, the woman went to have tea with a financial advisor and the first man went to see her only to find out that she was dead because he stole the financial advisor's sugar bowl. After I think about these series of unfortunate events, I run into an elevator shaft and scream up the name of the woman who killed her. Anyway, the point of all these pointless analogies is that remembering things can be both good and bad and what the Baudelaire orphans were remembering wasnt either. It was sad. You see, as the Baudelaires were sitting on the edge of Damocles Dock, waiting for the Prospero to dock so they could meet their new guardian, and listening to Mr. Poe cough, which they now noticed sounded like a saw at a lumbermill, they remembered 3 particular people. The first was their Aunt Josephine, who lived up the cliff that all the Baudelaires look at. She was a woman who was killed by the dreaded Lachrymose Leeches. Their Uncle Monty was the second person they reminisced about. He was a herpetologist, a word which here means 'person who studied snakes and reptiles', and was going to take them to Peru but an evil man called Count Olaf poisoned him and blamed it on a snake. And the last person the unfortunate trio remembered was an evil optometrist-turned-evil- hypnotist called Dr. Georgina Orwell who tried to kill someone and get the Baudelaire fortune in the process. She had died by being distracted during a sword fight and was; well, lets just say killed. Violet Baudelaire was 15 years old, and inventor and was trying to forget her Aunt by tying her hair up, which you must know by now means she was thinking of inventing something, and started to think of an invention she has made which could impress all the crew onboard the Prospero. Klaus Baudelaire was a 13-year-old reader and was trying to forget his Uncle by cleaning his glasses and thinking of all the books he had read about boat and their crews so he could be prepared for what the men and women could say about and to him. Finally, Sunny Baudelaire, who was a 2 year old and had 8 sharp teeth, four of which were newly grown, was licking them, hoping that it would help her forget what had happened to Dr. Orwell and started to think about all the fun rope that would need to be cut on the boat. However, as all of the Baudelaires forgot about a few of the tragedies that they had experienced, nothing could prepare them for who they would meet onboard the Prospero. "Now Baudelaires," Mr. Poe said after coughing into his handkerchief which brought them out of their trance-like state. "When you meet Captain John Luc Pickering, please do not bombard him with questions. Bombard means 'throw at'." Mr. Poe finished his sentence by a cough. "We know what bombard means." Klaus said angrily. He had finished cleaning his glasses and was now watching the ocean waves splash. "And besides, Uncle Monty said asking questions was a sign of intelligence." As he said this, his eyes glistened with tears but none showed. Violet saw this and put her arm around him. Mr. Poe forced a that's-sweet-but-still smile.  
"I know that it's hard for you to speak about your late Uncle," Mr. Poe had stopped his smile and was looking very serious, "but we have to look to the future. Look, there's a boat on the horizon." This was true. As the Baudelaire orphans turned around each of them could see a small black dot, then a faint outline of a ship, and then the whole of this ship in it's complete, magnificant form. The bust on the front of the Prospero was the best bust Klaus had ever seen and was a bust of his idol, William Shakespere.  
As all the Baudelaires look at the ship, they didn't notice a man in a Navy uniform getting off and stepping onto Damocles dock. He was well groomed with neat hair and weirdly, his cufflinks had eyes on them. Besides the fact tat he was noticable, the Baudelaires only noticed him when he walked up next to them and started to speak.  
"Hello, you must be the Baudelaires. I'm your new guardain. Captain John Luc Pickering, but you can call me Uncle Johnny if you want." Said the Captain with a smile and hugged the Baudelaires. They all were so surprised at how their new guardian had greeted them that they didn't notice his cufflinks. And as he hugged the Baudelaires, on of his cufflinks caught Violet's hair ribbon, and as he moved away from the Baudelaires to stand up straight, the pulled the hair ribbon along with Violet attached to it.  
"Ow!" Violet exclaimed when she felt the tug. She fiddled with her hair ribbon, trying to untie it. "Your cufflink is stuck to my hair ribbon!"  
"Oh, I am ever so sorry!" said Uncle Johnny fiddling wth his cufflink. At last, the hair ribbon and cufflink were seperated but Violet kept looking at them. Klaus looked at Violet, and then looked at the cufflinks and he also kept looking at them. Sunny looked at Klaus, then to Violet and then to the cufflinks and followed suit. I am reminded of a certain meeting my associates had recently and we all looked at this special insignia. And as the Baudelaires looked at the cufflinks, they realised that they were looking at a special insignia. The cufflinks had a special design on them, like most do, but these had on them, an even more special one. On the cufflinks were some eyes which resembled the letters V, F and D. 


End file.
